Starmer just triggered UTTER CHAOS!

Right, so Keir Starmer as Prime Minister is supposed to be working to calm this rioting situation down, instead he’s put out a message of praise in light of apparent fears raised by the Jewish community. Now any fears they may have in society, genuine ones, of course should be addressed, but rioters aren’t after them on the whole. Their skin colour doesn’t generally invoke religious hatred against them, more often than not they will be white, yet that is very much what has been behind the riots, the attacks on immigrants, the rhetoric driving that from our mainstream media, our politicians, not least Starmer himself, and as my dear friend Dr Louise Raw opined to Starmer’s statement of essentially thoughts and prayers for the Jewish community in light of the riots going on right now and the racism pushing them, thank God there isn’t any Islamophobia!
Right, so Keir Starmer, the man in charge, the Prime Minister, the guy who is supposed to be promoting unity at a time of great division, division he himself has played a part in in his attacks on Bengalis, his demands of a Welsh Islamic Centre to tell Hamas to return the hostage, his backing of the cutting off of food and power to Gaza, the home office now planning raids on nail bars looking for migrants, the list goes on has now gone and made things worse, because right now, whilst all of this is going on he puts out the most tone deaf tweet going as to the causes of the rioting:
‘The rise of antisemitic incidents in the UK is deeply concerning. Jewish people, and all those from faith communities, deserve to feel safe on our streets. I'd like to thank the CST for their action. We will work together to eradicate discrimination of any kind.’
Right, so we’re witnessing a rise in antisemitic incidents are we? Now I appreciate that there will be Jewish people of colour in this country, but when most are white, when was the last time a Jewish person was told to go back to their own country on the basis of their faith? We are right now seeing attacks on Mosques, I’ve not seen a story of a Synagogue being set fire to in the same way during these riots, and frankly if it had, I’d expect it to be headline news because that’s how our media functions as well. Hierarchy of racism. I didn’t coin the phrase, but examples of it when it comes to Starmer’s Labour and our media just keep coming.
Why don’t Muslims have Starmer’s unconditional support as well? Are they not innocent victims of these riots too? Are they not living in fear right now? Starmer ignoring them, just gives the impression they count for less, certainly less than Jewish people, though even that, given Starmer’s track record depends upon being his kind of Jew.
So what prompted this tin eared, tone deaf response from Starmer, when we know it is skin colour and Islamophobia by knuckle-dragging racists, having been incited by the sort of racists with plummy voices, and dressed in suits driving these riots right now, his comments doing nothing but sowing more division, the barbed swipe from Louise Raw saying what she, I and many others have thought about this too?
Well he did tell us there, because he offered his praise to the CST, the Community Security Trust who, amid all the racial and Islamophobic rioting decided now was the best time to put antisemitism back on the agenda by dropping their latest report on the 8th August, the same day Starmer rushed to respond to it, got to keep the Israel Lobby happy.
The Community Security Trust is a registered charity here in the UK set up to protect Jewish people from antisemitism and related threats and in that alleged remit work with police, Jewish organisations, Synagogues and the like providing security advice and have 90 staff working across London, Manchester and Leeds in those roles.
The CST’s latest report, 42 pages of it, concerns cases of antisemitic incidents that they’ve recorded in the first half of this year, claiming 1,978 incidents which they say is a 105% increase.
Now of course should any of those be genuine, that is terrible and should be condemned as much as any other racist incident, but the problem with the CST is their stats – when it comes to this organisation specifically - beg the question how much of that was truly antisemitism and how much is anti Zionism and actually, having had that accusation levelled at them for a while, it’s worth listening to this clip of a Radio 4 interview with Mark Gardner, the Chief Executive of the CST, discussing distinctions between Jewish people in light of the anti Israel marches. This clip dates back to March of this year:
London is a no go zone for Jews was the query put to Gardner and he broadly agreed with it, agreed that he didn’t want anything to do with the anti Israel marches, that he avoided them himself and when put to him that there were Jewish people involved in the marches, he decided to make distinctions between two types of Jews essentially, those on the march and those who wouldn’t be on the march, ultra orthodox Jews as he put it, who are against the idea of a Jewish state, many Jews whether orthodox or not, balk at Israel being described as such anyway, but he also brought up revolutionary Jews or socialist Jews who’s presence serves to legitimise these marches as not being antisemitic. They will be the ones marching, other Jews who will not be anti Israel wouldn’t be seen on these marches.
Now am I wrong in my interpretation of that recording that Gardner is basically implying there is a right sort of Jew and the wrong sort of Jew? And am I wrong in interpreting Gardner’s words that marching against what Israel is doing in Gaza would therefore be an antisemitic thing to do?
Comning back to the CST report, they tried to make a distinction between antisemitism and anti Zionism as well, but in my view, made a pigs ear of that too. Here’s a short excerpt:
‘For example, the terms “Zionist” and “Zionism” will often be used in arguments about Israel and the Middle East; sometimes they are used accurately and legitimately, and at other times they are deployed in an antisemitic way. CST must distinguish between the occasions when these terms are used in a purely political sense, and the times when they are abused as euphemisms for “Jewishness” and “Jews”. Similarly, the phrases “Zionist Lobby” and “Israel Lobby”, when they are deployed indiscriminately as a label for Jewish organisations and individuals regardless of whether they are relevant to the matter being discussed, connect the conspiracy theory that Jews have a disproportionate political power and influence, with the antisemitic trope that Jews are not to be trusted. Drawing out these distinctions, and deciding on where the dividing lines lie, is one of the most difficult areas of CST’s work in recording and analysing hate crime.’
Now I have a big problem with anyone painting any individual of a protected characteristic, be it racial or religious or sexuality whatever, being discriminated against for that reason. Taking what the CST wrote there, if I talked about a Jewish Lobby for example, being in control, that would certainly play into the antisemitic trope, the CST described there about Jews being in positions of influence and power. The trouble is, they didn’t say Jewish Lobby, they applied that definition, that racist trope, to the terms, Israel Lobby and Zionist Lobby. They are perfectly legitimate descriptions of lobbying entities, because they have nothing to do with religion in and of themselves, they are political. Israel is a nation, it is a political body. Zionism is a political ideology and so between Gardner’s awful interview responses and the CST’s own report just released, the accusation levelled at them for blurring the lines between what is antisemitism and what is anti Zionism continues in my view to be a valid one. The problem with that, is it undermines any good work they might have actually done to tackle the real thing and how much are their stats skewed as a result?
Contrast Starmer’s hailing of their work though, to his communications with the people genuinely threatened in the riots right now, Muslims most notably, people of colour certainly. Where Starmer couldn’t respond fast enough to the CST’s report dropping, after a week of riots, with more still allegedly planned to come, still Starmer cannot get a grip of the situation, he and his government have been completely ignoring the Muslim Council of Britain, the largest Muslim organisation in the UK. The hierarchy of racism yet again demonstrated under Starmer as this excerpt from Middle East Eye explains:
‘On 31 July, after a mob attack on a mosque in Southport, the MCB said it had written to the home secretary “seeking reassurance for the protection of mosques and communities”.
MEE’s sources in the MCB said that the organisation has not had any communication in response.
The Home Office referred MEE to its introduction of emergency security for mosques nationwide, which it announced on 4 August.
The Cabinet Office referred MEE to a statement by Labour’s communities minister, Alex Morris, on Friday 2 August which said that “there are no plans for Ministers to meet with the Muslim Council of Britain."’
Can you imagine Starmer saying such a thing to, for example the Board of Deputies? It’s complete dereliction of duty, to ignore community representation like that, but then Labour are also apparently in talks to set up an alternative to the MCB, which they will liaise with. Well what is wrong with the MCB? Not Starmery enough?
By running to the Israel Lobby as the CST ostensibly can be viewed as in the middle of a public crisis on our streets as rioters go after Muslims and people of colour, Starmer isn’t bring communities back together, he’s there sowing the divisions, taking sides, standing with his sort and ignoring others. Racism is becoming a bigger issue under him not less, and racism of all kinds, where people of colour and of Muslim faith appear to matter less than predominantly white Jewish people do, but only the right kind of Jew it seems, the non protesting pro Israel types at that. He will continue to inflame tensions and make matters catastrophically worse and his response to the CST versus the MCB, frankly rubber stamps that unfortunate truth.
Calling it out though, might be about to become a lot more difficult as Starmer now turns his sights on social media. An attempt to gag the rioters possibly, but doing so by gagging all of us at the same time perhaps? I certainly wouldn’t put it past him, but check out that story in this video recommendation here and I’ll hopefully catch you on the next vid. Cheers folks.